There are currently a plethora of business communication constructions, marketing and advertising pieces and other items that are available in the market today for communicating products and services with an intended audience. Yet with this inordinately large selection of offerings and permutations, there remains a continuing need to develop new products due to changes in technology, societal trends, diversification of marketing, packaging and advertising campaigns and new information handling needs of businesses and consumers alike.
Stock presentation folders are generally well known today and are provided in a variety of colors and typically in several standard formats. Such stock products are created from a blank of material to which at least one and usually two pockets are provided on the inner face of the blank. The pockets are generally formed from the same sheet or blank and are then folded over onto the blank and sealed to the blank to create the pockets. The blank is then folded, usually centrally, to form two relatively equal sides.
Such folders are used in a number of applications ranging from academic, such as in elementary, middle school, high school or collegiate environments and for other education purposes including seminars and technical symposiums. In addition, folders have also been used in the past to hand out information on products and services in the hopes of inducing purchases or sales of such products or services such as may be the case with marketing and advertising campaigns and in connection with professional development activities and services.
These prior art folders have been generally provided in a broad spectrum of colors and can even have different finishes such as glossy or a metallic appearance in order to supplement the product of topic offering. In addition, such prior art products may also be provided with textural or tactile features so as to resemble grains in leather or wood, again all in an effort to produce or tailor the communication vehicle to the audience or presenter to garner more attention for the products or services being offered.
Examples of such prior art folders include U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,870,223, 4,109,850, 4,301,962, 4,731,142, 4,989,777 and 5,836,507. Each of these prior art constructions are constructed from a single blank of material. That is, the portion making up the folder which comprises the pocket, are part of the same blank. The portion which becomes the pocket is then folded onto the folder portion to create the pocket portion. Such constructions normally require the manufacturer to purchase expensive and complicated folding equipment in order to process and fold the pocket portion, see for example U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,439,436 and 6,063,226.
One of the difficulties with such stock folder products is that the user of such products must order the folders in large lots or amounts, or must select the folder from a generic stock inventory that may only have a pre-determined number of colors or finish options. If a presenter or distributor would prefer to have at least limited information printed on the folder, such as the name of the company or presenter or to have certain colors or finishes that represent the company, such as to emphasize the trade dress, then the user is stuck with the unfortunate option of having to order such products in large quantities typically greater than 50 and more and often more typically in the hundreds or thousands of pieces as the set up for the production or manufacture of folders is complex and orders in the hundreds or thousands of units is normally required by the manufacturer due to the complexity associated with such set up of equipment. This dilemma has apparently, unfortunately thwarted the growth of the folder industry and prevented the use of this tool from expanding its utilization and communication potential to users of the product as an advertising vehicle.
The difficulty with current stock folder offerings is that the purchaser must also select from a number of pre-arranged configurations. If all business, products and marketing tools were also standardized, this would not be a problem. However, in an effort to market products, marketing and advertising materials come in an array of shapes, sizes and substances. Thus, a standard configuration may not lend itself to an advertising or marketing message that has a particular “map” or arrangement that requires different pieces to appear in different areas.
Another problem faced by users of such stock folders is that they have virtually no personalized or individualized information. For example, in a typical introductory business meeting between two entities, the attendees may include an executive, members of sales and marketing and production personnel. Distributing the exact same information to each attendee may result in the information simply being deposited into the attendee's files, instead of the presenter's intent of delivering a specific message to each participant. Any personalized or individualized information is then limited to the sheets that are included inside the folders and those specific to a particular attendee may be buried deep within myriad of pages of information provided to the attendees. Alternatively, some level of personalization can be applied through the application of labels to the exterior of the folder.
Attempts at personalization or individualization have sometimes been elaborate, such as that illustrated by U.S. Pat. No. 5,882,038 in which a personalized sheet is printed and then inserted so that the personalized information is then visible through die cut windows in the blank. As one might imagine, this limits the amount of personalization that can be provided and also requires that the information be aligned with the windows in the folder assembly so that it is visible. In fact, this construction highlights the difficulty in providing personalization in a custom or stock folder offering.
In addition to the foregoing problems enumerated above as well as the steps of folding the blank and the equipment required to achieve those tasks, in order to manufacture such a product one needs to add additional die cutting stations and then is faced with the challenge of inserting the personalized sheet of information. In preparing for a meeting, even a small meeting, having to insert 10 sheets into 10 different folders can be time consuming, particularly if one is rushed in trying to get to the meeting.
Pop-up advertising assemblies are also relatively well known in the art such as shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,874,356, 4,867,480, 4,833,802 and 4,349,973 each of which disclose pop-up configurations which have historically been provided with greeting cards, promotional or direct mailing pieces, in store or retail type displays and the like. Pop-up configurations have also widely been used in illustrating literary works, particularly books and other publications that have been used to increase readership among children.
What is needed therefore is a communication piece that is self erecting, can be produced economically and efficiently and is provided in connection with a pocketed business communication piece such as a presentation folder. A combination attention direction device along with a pocketed business communication that can be imaged with matching personalized indicia can then be used to convey a complete message.
Publications, patents and patent applications are referred to throughout this disclosure. All references cited herein are hereby incorporated by reference.